'A fool and his money are easily parted.'
'A dumb priest never got a parish,' as much as to say if a man wants a thing he must ask and strive for it.
'A slip of the tongue is no fault of the mind.' (Munster.)
You merely hint at something requiring no further explanation:--'A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.' (Sam Lover: but heard everywhere.)
A very wise proverb often heard among us is:--'Let well enough alone.'
'When a man is down, down with him': a bitter allusion to the tendency of the world to trample down the unfortunate and helpless.
'The friend that can be bought is not worth buying.' (Moran: Carlow.)
'The life of an old hat is to cock it.' To cock an old hat is to set it jauntingly on the head with the leaf turned up at one side. (S. E. counties.)
'The man that wears the shoe knows where it pinches.' It is only the person holding any position that knows the troubles connected with it.
'Enough and no waste is as good as a _faist_.'
'There are more ways of killing a dog than by choking him with butter.' Applied when some insidious cunning attempt that looks innocent is made to injure another.
'Well James are you quite recovered now?' 'Oh yes, I'm _on the baker's list_ again': i.e., I am well and have recovered my appetite.
'An Irishman before answering a question always asks another': he wants to know why he is asked.
Dan O'Loghlin, a working man, drove up to our { 110} house one day on an outside car. It was a sixpenny drive, but rather a long one; and the carman began to grumble. Whereupon Dan, in the utmost good humour, replied:--'Oh you must take the little potato with the big potato.' A very apt maxim in many of life's affairs, and often heard in and around Dublin.
'Good goods are tied up in small parcels': said of a little man or a little woman, in praise or mitigation. (Moran: Carlow.)
'Easy with the hay, there are boys on the ladder.' When a man is on the top of the stack forking down hay, he is warned to look out and be careful if other _boys_ are mounting up the ladder, lest he may pitch it on their heads. The proverb is uttered when a person is incautiously giving expression to words likely to offend some one present. (Moran: Carlow.)
Be cautious about believing the words of a man speaking ill of another against whom he has a grudge: 'Spite never spoke well.' (Moran: Carlow.)